But, even the stranger lad, who had so unceremoniously intruded into the carriage, seemed to become aware as he confronted him that the Captain's `bark was worse than his bite'; for, dropping his snivel and looking his questioner manfully in the face, he at once went on to tell who he was and explain the reasons for his unexpected appearance on the scene--his earnest accents and honest outspokenness testifying to the truth of his statement in the opinion, not only of Bob and Nellie, but of the whilom grumpy old Captain as well. The lad said that his name was Dick Allsop and that he belonged to Guildford, the last station the train had passed, and the only one at which it had stopped since leaving Waterloo. His father had died some years before, but his mother had lately got married again to a regular brute of a man, who behaved very badly to her and treated Dick, he averred, so cruelly, that he could not stand it any longer. That very morning, Dick stated; he had beaten him so unmercifully that he had suddenly determined to run away to sea; and this was the reason why he wanted to get to Portsmouth. "But, you might have entered the carriage like a Christian!" interposed the Captain at this point of the lad's story. "The train stopped long enough at Guildford for you to get in through the doorway, like any ordinary passenger, surely?" "No, sir, I couldn't," answered the other. "I couldn't a-done it." "But why not?" "Because, sir," snivelled the lad, "I didn't have no money, sir." "Humph! you had no money, eh?" "No, sir; nothing but thrippence-a'penny, which mother gave me afore I started, when she wished me good-bye. She was sorry as how she could give me nothing more; and so I couldn't pay the fare, and had no ticket." "So, my joker, you got on the train without one at all!" said the Captain, interrupting him. "Do you know that was really cheating the railway company?" "I knows it, sir," replied Dick Allsop, who had better now be called by his own proper name, looking down as if ashamed of what he had done. "I knows it's wrong; but, sir, I couldn't help it, as there was no other way I seed of getting to Porchmouth." "But, why didn't you jump into the carriage like a Christian, as I said just now?" observed the Captain. "Eh?" Dick seemed amused by this question. "Does yer think, sir, the porters would ha' let me if they'd seed me a- trying it on?" said he, with a radiant grin that lit up his face, quite changing its expression. "Not if they, knowed it!" "Perhaps not," agreed the Captain, nonplussed by the lad's logic and knowledge of human nature. "No, I don't think they would."